The latest iteration of the Hive system from British Gas is out now. Fancy thermostat! There's also a redesigned Hub (Hive Nano 2 Hub v2) unit, given the AlertMe designation of HUB320, or so I'm led to believe.

But the interesting thing from my point of view are that automation devices (SmartPlugs, Motion Sensors, all that) are making an appearance. How these will be integrated with Hive itself, who knows at this point - there is a multi-zone thermostat option.

The door and motion sensors are quite obviously the original (and very good) AlertMe designs, though I'd hope there's not a Hive logo on every one as I prefer the plain look. The 'Active Plug' is redesigned and not identical to the original SmartPlug, with a bulkier top section and a recessed circle (probably for an LED shine-through indicator). The really interesting one is the Active Light, which appears to be a standard-fitting LED light bulb with (I assume) zigbee built-in. Considering how much work has gone into wifi-connected lightbulbs from the likes of Philips and LIFX, I really want to see how this works.

There are a couple of things missing though, which I would love to see included in the future; connected light switches and plug sockets. Considering British Gas aren't afraid of heading down the 'pro install' route, I don't see why these shouldn't be on the development list. They're already available on the other massive AlertMe platform - Lowes Iris in the USA - and bypass the major issue with smart lights and smart plugs, which is that people can switch them off, essentially nullifying their connected-home features.

This was the obvious route for Hive, and I'm glad they've finally integrated the systems.

It puzzles me as to why it's taken so long and why they aren't introducing everything else that was in the old British Gas system, such as external siren and smoke alarm.

There is a huge gap in the market for a company that can bring everything together under one brand. AlertMe did home monitoring, Nest does thermostats, smoke alarms and cameras, and now Hive is doing thermostats, a few sensors and plugs/lights.

To be honest I was giving up hope with AlertMe/British Gas/Hive and have just purchased the new Nest Protect.

I would love a system that integrates an alarm system with smoke alarms, heating and electrical control but it doesn't seem to be happening. Yes you can do it with bigger systems but there is no real brand that brings at all together.

Funnily enough, I've got Nest Protect smoke alarms too. I did like the idea of having a unit that integrated with AlertMe, but with nothing on the horizon, I went with Nest. To be honest, I'd have gone with any decent looking unit that could handle interconnections, but they were either very, very ugly or required mains power. The way Nest Protect works just fine in a standalone mode was appealing too.

Unfortunately, I've had two of my three Nest Protect (v1) units replaced under warranty because of faulty smoke sensors - they would constantly detect smoke, one straight out of the box. There's a new sensor in the v2 units, and I wonder if this might be part of the reason for that.

With British Gas backing I'm sure the 'new' Hive system will do very well, it's just a shame they're making this all look like a new system when it's something we've had for years.

I'll be interested to see the SwannOne pricing and also whether any AlertMe accessories work with the new Hive system. Although in fairness, I think the Nest thermostat looks much better than the new Hive one so I'm still tempted by that.